Shatta & Dad Shut Down High Street

Controversial artiste Shatta Wale is indisputably Ghana’s biggest crowd-pulling musician. He succeeded in pulling an unprecedented crowd to literally shut down the entire James Town stretch of the Accra High Street from Saturday dusk to Sunday dawn.

Wale was headline artiste for a beach concert, ‘Shatta Wale Mixtape Beach Party’, held at the Shatta Beach in James Town.

Just when the concert was about to commence around 5 pm, it started to rain very heavily but the fans stood in the rain completely unperturbed.

While some of them who had already bought their tickets fled to seek shelter in front of nearby stores and buildings, majority of them stood in the queue as it rained while some more arrived on motorbikes and in buses.

Two hours later, when the rain stopped, it was as though hell had broken loose as more people trooped to the place to witness the show.

When the concert was announced, there was split opinion as to whether it was not to spite the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) which was to be held at the Accra International Conference Centre that same night.

His manager, Bull Dog, however explained to NEWS-ONE the two concerts falling on the same date was not planned.

‘Basically the timing was coincidental. The Shatta Beach was opened a few weeks ago in honour of Shatta Wale and the youth and elders in the neighbourhood came to see us to inform us officially. So the team thought it wise to bless the place for them… Due to our travel schedule, we decided to do the concert this weekend and we all happened to have settled on Saturday afternoon,’ Bull Dog explained.

When NEWS-ONE visited the concert venue in the afternoon, Shatta Wale’s biological father, Charles Mensah, was one of the persons seen with the organisers putting measures in place to ensure the show came off successfully.

Shatta Wale’s dad, Charles MensahWhen the fans later realised that Charles Mensah was Shatta Wale’s father, he became one of the toasts of the night as several persons queued to take photos with him.

The crowd went crazy with jubilation when the show was opened with a five-minute chorography by the Global Dancers, a group of four professional teenage dancers based in James Town but with a fast rising fame across the country.

The presence of Sarkodie, Jupiter, Arabee Rashid Mental and other musicians who were there to support Shatta Wale, made the night a memorable one.

The concert itself was a mega one worth writing home about. It was a party at the beach and had people making merry till Sunday dawn.

After the show, Shatta Wale took to his facebook wall to write: ‘Thanks to all my loyal and greatest fans ever in the history of GH music. I love you all and God bless you …’